Three more measles cases confirmed in Illinois

Three additional cases of measles have been confirmed in Illinois, bringing the total to nine this year, the Illinois Department of Public Health said Monday.

One of the confirmed measles cases is in Chicago. The other eight measles cases are in people who live in north suburban Cook County, said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the department. All of those people were unvaccinated, the Cook County Department of Public Health said.

A spokeswoman from the county health department said that eight of the people with measles were tied to the KinderCare daycare center in Palatine: One adult from suburban Cook County who was not an employee at KinderCare, according to a spokeswoman for KinderCare; six children who live in suburban Cook County; and one child who lives in Chicago, according to Arnold.

News of the outbreak at the daycare center came last week. The national daycare chain has since required all staff members to be vaccinated, the Associated Press has reported.

Another north suburban person — an unvaccinated adult who was the first to be diagnosed with measles on Jan. 27 — brings the suburban Cook County total to eight.

Illinois health officials are still trying to figure out how the infants at the Illinois daycare center and the adult from north Cook County became infected with the measles virus. No ties have been found to the December outbreak at Disneyland in California, Arnold said.

The CDC says 121 cases have been reported in 17 states, including Illinois and Washington, D.C., since Feb. 6.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease, but health officials say it can be effectively prevented by vaccination.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says children should be given the first dose of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age. The second dose is usually given before the start of kindergarten at 4 to 6 years of age.

The Cook County Department of Public Health has stressed that the vast majority of suburban Cook County residents have been vaccinated and therefore, have a very low risk of contracting measles.

Individuals who are unable to get vaccinated and parents with children less than 12 months of age who are too young to be vaccinated may want to consider limiting unnecessary visits to public places to reduce the risk of exposure to the measles disease, the county health department said.